Citizens Advice CW ends hydrogen village partnership with Cadent

A Citizens Advice bureau has ended its contract to provide support around Cadent’s hydrogen village project, after being asked too many questions about hydrogen.

The consumer watchdog’s Cheshire West branch was engaged by the gas network to provide independent consumer advice to residents in Whitby, Yorkshire.

This is one of two areas being considered for the UK’s first hydrogen village, with 2,000 properties being switched from natural gas to hydrogen. Cadent, which is leading the bid, has promised that residents will get free upgrades to their homes and that over the two-year programme they will pay no more than for gas.

Citizens Advice was contracted to give residents support on their consumer rights, as well as helping vulnerable people complete surveys.

However, the organisation has now revealed it asked to terminate the partnership at the end of January after being overwhelmed by technical queries about hydrogen.

Jason Bishop, chief executive of Citizens Advice Cheshire West, said: “Our decision to end involvement in this project is due (to) confusion for residents regarding the nature of the advice we can provide in relation to the technical aspects of this project. We have received a number of enquiries from residents regarding the hydrogen project itself, which our advisers are not in a position to answer.

“Our involvement in this project was based on the expectation of providing independent advice for the residents of Whitby Village on our existing areas of expertise such as debt, welfare and consumer rights. So it is not appropriate to continue any formal involvement in this project.

“The residents of Whitby Village can still contact us for advice and information on any social welfare issue, including their consumer rights.”

Cadent said it is in discussions with several other organisations to provide “specialist independent advice” to consumers in future stages of the programme.